This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/gBB.2ACI/3401 Message Board Post: My 4x great grandparents Jacob and Lydia Kulp converted to Shakerism after they had kids (thank goodness) and lived at Pleasant Hill from the 1840s or 50s until I guess the 1880s. From what I can tell they apparently had 2 sons, Thomas and John. Thomas was my 3x great grandfather. I know little about John. I just saw him living in Pleasant Hill in the census and assume he was their son also. Thomas, at least, appears to have rejected or become indifferent to his parents' faith by 1857, when he had his first child. He did live in Mercer county at the time, it appears. I think he had at least 2 children there, Ellen (c. 1857) and Julius (Jan 1861). Jacob was considered an Elder of the Shaker community by 1880, and died there in Oct 1885. He lived in a 3 person dwelling with a minister and another man at one point. I'm wondering if there are any records available that the Shakers kept that I might be able to obtain. Knowing that Pleasant Hill is preserved to this day, I'm wondering if I might be able to learn what house(s) my family members lived in and visit them. Also, I'm wondering if Mercer County or some sort of historical society down there might have marriage records from as far back as the 1850s. I am not certain that they married in Mercer County (Thomas' wife, Mary, was apparently from S.C.) but it's worth a try if the records would still exist. If anyone would be kind enough that lives down there to perform a lookup of some sort or to check cemetery records for my family, I'd much appreciate it, but general answers to my broad questions would be great too. I don't have any reason to believe my family lived there past 1885, but it's possible, since I still don't know what becamse of John Kulp.